


Ridiculously Adorable

by JaneyKatherineHummingbird



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Pike is incredibly gorgeous, Soulmate AU, Tilly is adorable, embarrassing first words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 17:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18952852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneyKatherineHummingbird/pseuds/JaneyKatherineHummingbird
Summary: Wherein Tilly meets her soulmate: whose been carrying around a very blunt and rather embarrassing first sentence. Luckily for her, he’s pretty chill about it.





	Ridiculously Adorable

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve finally started watching Discovery and of course fell in love with these two.

Sylvia Tilly had long anticipated the arrival of her soulmate, wondering what her first thoughts toward him or her would be. Knowing herself, she knew they would be likely something really embarrassing or brutally forward. Hopefully, said Soulmate wouldn’t hold it against her. Her own words were a faint grey scrawl on her shoulder, mentioning how adorable she was. 

“Could have been much worse,” she’d often thought. “Least their first thought won’t be about my boobs. I’ll take it.” 

She’d met plenty of people in Starfleet she’d hoped would light up her words, but they remained stubbornly gray. Luckily, the fascinating science she got to do and the space adventures on the Discovery kept her quite occupied until she’d almost forgotten there was a soulmate. 

Seeing Paul grieving the loss of Hugh was a sobering reminder of what could happen if she did met him, and Tilly did plenty of soul-searching at night, wondering if she could take the risk of loving. 

At the same time, it was certainly heart-warming to see happy soulmate couples come together and she cheered for her crew mates who experienced it. 

The moment it happened to her, it took her completely off guard. She was performing the DNA scan of their new Captain and shamelessly admiring his nice hands (those nail beds!!) when he acted like she’d hurt him then said “Kidding” when she’d apologized in horror. 

The smirk he gave her was so very attractive that her mouth went dry.

 _Dear Lord, I want his babies!_ Was the impulsive thought that came, even as she verbally expressed her relief that she hadn’t broken the Captain. 

He gave her another smile and at that moment, she KNEW. Her words started to tingle and if they hadn’t been covered by her uniform, she was pretty sure they were glowing silver. 

“She’s ridiculously adorable,” was what Chris had thought the moment before his own words had started to glow. So this was the person who wanted his babies. Well, she was younger than he expected, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker. 

He didn’t know whether to laugh or pretend it didn’t happen. Either way, it wasn’t great timing given where they were: on the bridge in front of everybody. 

She looked like a deer in the headlights, staring open-mouthed in shock. Poor thing, he thought. She probably hadn’t been expecting a middle aged Captain as a soulmate. 

When she accidentally brought up his file on screen, he could see her become even more flustered.

“It’s okay, Ensign,” he assured her. “It’s good that you all can see I am who I say I am, given what happened with Lorca. Trust can take time to rebuild. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” He added in a low voice. 

She nodded in acknowledgment and managed a little smile. 

“Yes, Sir.” 

Tilly spent her shift in a bit of a daze, alternating between working feverishly, and sneaking glimpses at the Captain. Damn, he was hot being all commanding, but when those dimples showed up, he was irresistible. She thought she was one lucky girl having HIM for a soulmate, well, would be if he was accepting of it. This was a tricky situation, given he was a Captain and she was just an ensign. 

Finding the Hiawatha and the dangerous journey to rescue the survivors in addition to Michael getting injured threw everything else out of her head for most of the next day, and when she finally got off shift, she was exhausted. 

Slumping against the wall of the turbo lift, she heaved a weary sigh and tried to settle her crazy mind. It only worked briefly, because after about thirty second the object of her thoughts stepped aboard.

She jolted to attention.

“C-Captain! What a surprise!” She babbled. “That was quite a rescue you pulled off down there. I was both scared silly and incredibly impressed. How did you not die? Thank you for getting Michael out of there, by the way. It would have crushed me to lose her.” 

The captain looked at her with a tired, but kind smile. 

“You’re welcome. There was no way I could leave Commander Burnham—Or any of you—behind. But how are you doing, Ensign? It’s been quite a day for you, too.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just tired. Nothing a little sleep won’t cure.”

He nodded, and there was silence for a moment as they looked at each other.  
“So......about the other day,” Tilly began.  
“I was wondering if you experienced the same phenomenon I did when we met.” 

“And just what would that be, Ensign?” He asked. 

Tilly hesitated, but kept going. She had to try.

“My.....Soulmate Words turned silver and tingled when I met you,” she admitted. “I know you probably think It’s bad, wrong, against regs, but.....I just had to know, if it happened to you, or if I was mistaken.” 

“You’re not mistaken, Ensign,” Pike said, looking at her more intently. He pulled up his sleeve and revealed the silver words on his arm. (A very nice muscular arm, by the way).

Tilly’s blood ran cold and she blushed as red as her hair when she saw what it said. 

_Dear Lord, I want his babies_ was written in loopy silver writing on the inside of his wrist. 

“Please shoot me out the airlock right now,” she moaned, red face hidden in her hands as she shook with mortified laughter. “I am so sorry, Captain.” 

“Don’t be,” she heard him say, no judgment in his voice. “It’s very flattering to make such an impression on one’s Soulmate. Trust me, I’ve met people carrying around much more......detailed thoughts or even outright negative ones. Might I ask what my first thought about you was?”

She sniffed a bit, and dropped her hands. 

“It’s on my shoulder. You thought I’m Ridiculously adorable.” 

She giggled again. 

“Accurate,” Pike admitted, winking at her.  
“You are really damn cute, you know.” 

“I strive to be,” Tilly shot back saucily, her spunk quickly returning at how well he had handled this situation. 

“So how are we supposed to do this whole....soulmates thing?” She questioned. “It would probably go against a million regulations.” 

“Not necessarily. Starfleet has made certain allowances for such situations. How about we start by a proper introduction?”

“Perfect. I need a do-over anyway. I’m Sylvia Tilly. Nice to meet you, Captain,” she said brightly, offering her hand. 

He shook it with another one of those smiles and she swore her heart skipped a beat or two. It really wasn’t fair how good looking he was. 

“Nice to meet you, too,” she responded. “And for the record, my friends call me Tilly. Only my mom called me Sylvia and we don’t really get along.”

“I see,” he acknowledged. “And when I’m not on duty, My friends call me Chris.” 

Tilly beamed, but before she could respond the lift doors slid open on her deck. She’d never been so disappointed to reach a destination. Who noticed exhaustion when in the presence of such a man? 

“Well, um, It was nice to talk to you, Captain—er, Chris. Maybe we can do it again sometime. Get to know each other.”

“I’ll look forward to it, Tilly,” he said. “Goodnight, now.” 

“Goodnight,” She squeaked, managing to force herself to move out of the lift. Oh, she’d be dreaming about that magnetic smile tonight. She’d totally scored on the Soulmate front. Boy, would Michael be surprised when she found out!!! Grinning happily, Tilly practically skipped into her quarters.


End file.
